Cover to Cover #384A: Holiday Library Reads

Voicemail: Steven from MentatJack.com thinks that Stackpole's assessments of Cory Doctorow's experiment were extra harsh, and Stackpole expands more on the reasons why he still thinks the experiment is flawed and may in the long run may hurt more than it helps.

The Library: New to the studio this week: Tour de Lovecraft The Tales by Kennth Hite; Where the Deep Ones Are by Kenneth Hite and Andy Kopp; Plague Zone by Jeff Carlson; Spells in the City edited by Jane Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg; Gaslight Grotesque edited by J. R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec; The War That Changed the World by John-Allen Price; The Box by Richard Matheson; Liberating Atlantis by Harry Turtledove; Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword of Avalon by Diana L. Paxson

Submitting Listener comments: If you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know!

Comments

I don't completely agree with Michael S. when he says that at no point did he comment on the quality of Doctorow's work. It's a fine line, but you did point out that you've never met anyone who lists Doctorow as her/his favorite author. You didn't come out and question the quality of his writing, but the implication is there.

I actually disagree with the "implication" posted above but I have another question about the podcast. Where was the mention of Butcher's 6th (and last) book in the Alera series? I know he has become popular enough that maybe he doesn't need the plug on your show as much as lesser known authors do but it is a great series and it is ending. I would have expected at least a mention of it.

Thanks to Mike Stackpole for telling us about that straight history book about the Franco-Prussian war. I'd love to hear about more books like this that are useful to writers (I personally need to find a good book that gives a solid, basic understanding of horses), and perhaps have a new segment where things like this are explored in more depth, perhaps with ideas and exercises to get writers started using this stuff.

Yeah, Dave's right. Stackpole did say that, which I found odd, because I know several people who love Cory's work, not the least of which are Mur Lafferty (big name in podcasting), and Rachel Maddow (from MSNBC; she's on right after Keith). Rachel has even had Cory on her radio show last year.